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{{infoboxinfobox1
|title=Alan M Turing: Centenary Edition
|author=Sara Turing
|reviewer=Sue Magee
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=194
|publisher=Cambridge University Press
|date=March 2012
|isbn=978-1107020580
|website=|videocover=1107020581|amazonukaznuk=<amazonuk>1107020581</amazonuk>|amazonusaznus=<amazonus>1107020581</amazonus>
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June 2012 will see the centenary of the birth of Alan Turing, brilliant mathematician, the man who played a major part in breaking the Enigma codes in the Second World War and is widely thought to be the father of computer science. To celebrate the anniversary Cambridge University Press have reprinted a short biography written by Turing's mother and included a memoir written by his older brother, John. I'm rarely impressed by biographies written by [[No Ordinary Man by Dominic Carman|family members]] particularly when they're still coming to terms with their own grief, but this book is startling for what it says about the family members as much as for what it says about Alan Turing.
Sara Turing was in her seventies when she wrote this biography and was coping with the death of her younger son who was just forty one when he died. Her intention was not to write the definitive biography but rather to provide a framework, a basis on which other biographers could work. She's patiently trawled through school reports and correspondence, extracting the good as well as the bad (or indifferent) and has summarised his work in an admirable way which even I - a non-scientist - found comprehensible. It appears to be a warts-and-all resumé of a life lived simply but with immense promise which was cut short by a ridiculous accident brought about by his carelessness.
For another look at Turing's life, which has the benefit of saying up-front that it's fictional, we can recommend [[A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines by Janna Levin]].
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